ARCH 0680 at the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World at Brown

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Check out this trailer for a new documentary called Lost Rivers, which explores interaction with urban rivers through time:

Once upon a time, in almost every city, many rivers flowed. Why did they disappear? How? And could we see them again? This documentary tries to find answers by meeting visionary urban thinkers, activists and artists from around the world.

“The impact of dams on cultural heritage is enormous. Dams help offset water shortages and provide electricity for a rising global population. However, sites can be destroyed during the building of the dam infrastructure, or inundated by the reservoirs – reducing their accessibility to future generations or becoming damaged by water action and increased visitor traffic. As the global economic crisis and top-level political decisions impact cultural heritage funding, resources must be directed to where they can be of best use. Nonetheless, there is little guidance for policy makers and developers involved in the design and construction of dam projects.

This interdisciplinary workshop brings together specialists and interested parties to encourage a practical discussion about minimizing damage to cultural heritage during and after the construction of dam projects. This workshop is intended to begin a multi-year project, and will set the foundation and framework for future international sessions. The ultimate aim is the production of a practical set of guidelines for cultural heritage management in dam construction aimed at developers, foreign contractors, and policy-makers.

We cannot save or even record everything before it is lost, but must consider how best to choose, and what advice can be given to those in a position to make such decisions.”

This research project is holding an “interdisciplinary workshop [that] will set the foundation and framework for future international sessions, bringing together specialists and interested parties to encourage a practical discussion about minimizing damage to cultural heritage during and after the construction of dam projects.” You can read more about the endeavor, and the workshop drawing on these issues, by clicking on the image above to go to the project website.

I was sitting in on an introductory sociology class last week and was exposed to this incredibly evocative image for the topics we have been, and will be, discussing over the course of the semester. The airoots/eirut blog from which it comes talks about the rhetoric of (academic, intellectuals’) response to urbanization and the dichotomization of high rise versus slum: and how even though the reality of things on the ground is much more complex, images like this are employed to heighten that seemingly simple dichotomy. It’s important to keep that in mind even when narrowing down our focus to topics like water availability and access: while this photo is illustrative of the various extremes that come up – just look how every balcony has its own pool, as well as the larger pool sit within the well-watered lawns of the high-rise complex! – it takes a more critical and open-minded framework for really evaluating the specifics of water rights, battles, and issues in their local, historical context. What jumps out at you in this photograph?

I found last week’s topic of water as a source of healing quite fascinating, especially since there have been several articles published in the modern day about the therapeutic qualities of water. After talking to my mom this weekend, I realized that the spring I mentioned going to whilst suffering a bout of pneumonia in class on Friday was in fact Lourdes! Although memories of this particular moment are not that clear, my mom mentioned that my health improved dramatically after immersing myself in the waters of the piscines at the Grotto. I still hold the belief, however, that a majority of my recovery was due to being in warm weather, fresh air, and taking medicine. I am also in doubt as to whether or not travelling Lourdes with the intention of recuperating from my sickness had any effect on my view of the site’s healing powers. Reflecting upon this experience has demonstrated the importance of the social aspect of pilgrimages is as we discussed in class. Through word of mouth and sharing of stories with friends, my grandmother heard about the supposed healing nature of the spring, and in turn recommended my mother to take me there.

To elaborate on this theme of miraculous cures, my friend’s father, Dr Fereydoon Batmanghelidj published a book entitled Water Cure: Your Body’s Many Cries for Water in which he describes his experience with water whilst treating Iranian prisoners. One particularly interesting anecdote involves the treatment of a prisoner diagnosed with a peptic ulcer. Batmanghelidj recounts how the prisoner’s crippling pain miraculously vanished after he instructed his patient to drink two glasses of water. Whilst Dr Batmanghelidj’s seemingly supernatural cures have been backed up by science, it still seems so amazing to me that a simple molecule made up hydrogen and oxygen atoms can provide the solution to illnesses that have baffled the engineers of antibiotics for years. Lastly I thought I should note that I am writing this blog post whilst taking sips from my bottle of water, hoping that it somehow cures my sore throat.

The ship’s iconic bow. Images like these are being integrated into the comprehensive map. (Courtesy NOAA and the Russian Academy of Sciences). Click on photo to follow it back to its source image.

Too bad it came so many weeks after our week on underwater archaeology, but Archaeology magazine has recently published their May/June 2012 issue with the cover story “Archaeology of Titanic” by James P. Delgado, the current director of the Maritime Heritage Program for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In the article, he talks about the recent efforts to create the first comprehensive archaeological map of the site* and discern the site formation processes – including how the different pieces hit the ground, and how the processes of the sea went to work on them afterwards, and with what results. This is all possible under what Delgado calls “a paradigm shift in underwater archaeology” (36): “thanks to rapid technological advances and interdisciplinary work… for the first time, Titanic can be treated and explored like any other underwater site — een extreme depth is no longer an obstacle to archaeologists” (36). He also talks about issues relating to the site like jurisdiction – who has access to it, and who can take what away from it. Ricardo Elia provided a timeline of “Titanic in the Courts” in Archaeology’s January/February 2001 issue, to accompany Delgado’s earlier account of “Diving on the Titanic” in the same issue. Both of these follow Elia’s September 2000 account of “Diving for Diamonds,” describing “The ongoing saga of the RMS Titanic and efforts to protect shipwrecks and submerged sites.“

When I started writing this post, a show about Titanic came up on NPR – highlighting that all we’re hearing about the Titanic recently are because 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of the ship’s sinking, and the archaeology of the site isn’t the only activity catching the public’s interest in this seemingly endless fascinating and tragic story that started on April 15, 1912. Object histories are tugging at heartstrings, like in Owen Edwards’ article Smithsonian magazine, “Titanic Sank This Morning” which describes how powerful a seemingly ordinary object like a life jacket can be (I find this image of a suitcase from one of Titanic’s passengers, captured in the recent efforts to document the site, to be equally evocative).

In addition to movies and radio shows and archaeological expeditions, a lot of new books are coming out this year about the Titanic. Here you can read reviews of “3 New ‘Titanic’ Books” and “Titanic: Five Stories From Survivors” (which points out, ominously, that Titanic doesn’t even rank among the top five deadliest disasters). Check out Smithsonian’s “Full Steam Ahead! Roundup of All Things Titanic” to find out even more about topics ranging from why Titanic still has such a powerful grip on the popular imagination even 100 years after it sank to whether the disaster occurred because of an optical illusion (!).

*The eerily moon-like site map is available in the hard copy of the magazine, but not in the online version; but you can get some idea of what it looks like by clicking on this image of the magazine cover. I will bring in my copy to class on Monday so you can flip through the article to see the images!

Spending her spring break in Ireland, Hadley has shared a post about a holy well she’s encountered!:

During my travels in Ireland, I was driving through County Clare and saw a sign for Saint Brigid’s Well. Remembering the name as one of the Holy Wells of Ireland, I pulled over to take a look. Later in town, when I was asking the locals about more information on the well, I found out that “Saint Brigid’s Well” is actually a misnomer. This is because there are, in fact, two wells, each just outside of Kildare in Co. Clare and about a mile apart. (So of course I had to jump back in the car and track down the second one). The reason they both are considered “St. Brigid’s Well” is because they both emanate from the same spring, considered to be holy and healing. The “healing” properties of this spring, however, are in much debate. This is because the well doesn’t incorporate just one, or even two, religions. Saint Brigid’s Well is the site of three different denominations: Christianity, Paganism, and Druidism.

This all began with St. Brigid herself. According to Celtic belief, Brigid was one of three daughters and part of the Tuatha De Danann, the race of gods and demigods of Irish mythology. She was known as the Goddess of the Sacred Flame of Kildare and associated with elevated thought, such as philosophy, wisdom, and most importantly, healing. However, due to inadequate written records, when the spring became first associated with her remains unclear. It is also unclear when Irish mythology in antiquity can be considered Paganism and when it can be considered Druidism since so little is known about the Druids. However, references to Brigid can be found associated with both.

Finally, enter Christianity. It is no secret that much of modern Christian practices originated from the attempted assimilations of non-monotheistic religions, such as Paganism, that worshiped primarily nature-based deities, and Druidism, that believed in the immortality of the soul, and Brigid is no exception. As Christianity was forced on the Celts, Brigid of the Tuatha De Danann became St. Brigid of Kildare, the story claiming she had been born in a Druid slave family, but could never eat what was brought to her because they were so impure. She supposedly performed many miracles, the majority of which involved healing, and was called the “Mary of the Gaels.”

This dual-religious worship is still seen at the well today. Christian worshipers asking for healing follow very specific instructions, including when and where to kneel, which prayers to say, how many times, etc. However, the only things generally left are rosaries (seen in the picture which her statue). The Pagan worshipers, on the other hand, to this day still leave many votives and offerings, most notably ribbons. According to Pagan belief, healing occurs upon proper offering, followed by drinking of the water. I won’t include both the Pagan and Christian rituals specifically since it’s rather long, but here’s the link to its Wikipedia; its history of the well is lacking but at the bottom is a good explanation of the ritual (please note that it is not perfect in that they’ve combined both the Christian and Pagan rituals).

Nile mosaic (Barberini mosaic) from the Sanctuary of Fortuna at Praeneste, Italy. Dated to the last quarter of the second century BCE.

After today’s lecture, I did a little digging on the Nile mosaics from Praeneste(modern Palestrina, Italy). The most famous, for both its size and its quality, is the Barberini mosaic, pictured here. It is so called because it was removed from the complex in the 17th century by the Barberini family (and has suffered subsequently!). It was located in a complex of structures behind the forum at Praeneste and below the terraces of the great Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia.

View of the sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia at Praeneste, Italy. The sanctuary dates to the second century BCE.

The mosaic was on the apse, the curved ceiling, at one end of a hall in this lower complex of the Sanctuary. The apse is described by Dunbabin as ‘grotto-like’ (1999: 49), and “in its original setting, water seeping through the rock would have covered the surface [of the mosaic], enhancing the effect of fluidity” (Dunbabin 1999: 50-51). How cool is that, that the very materiality of the mosaic’s presentation was self-referential?

The composition of the mosaic is not just a highlight of scenes from Egyptian life, but even reflects contemporary conventions of displaying the cardinal directions from a birds’-eye view, with south at the top as was the custom in ancient maps (Meyboom 1995: 43). While a varying number of interpretations of the mosaic have been set forth (and you can read about them in more detail in the sources I’ve provided, below), it is generally agreed that there are two distinct parts to the mosaic: the upper part depicting (surprise!) Upper Egypt and the Nile’s origins in the heartland of Africa, and the lower part various scenes of Lower Egypt and the Delta.

In the upper part a mountainous landscape is populated by Ethiopians hunting, and by a variety of exotic animals, most identified by their names in Greek. In the lower half, the water spreads out widely to suggest the NIle at the time of its annual flood, celebrated in Egypt with great festivities. Islands above the surface of the water support various buildings, among them a typical Egyptian temple, its entrance flanked by pylons, and a temple in Greek style, with white-robed priests, obelisks, and a round well probably meant for a Nilometer… the water between is full of boats: the small curved boats of the peasants made of bundles of papyrus, and larger merchant-ships, while a hunting party in a more luxurious vessel attacks a group of crocodiles and hippopotamus… Finally two scenes at the bottom show an open-air drinking party beside the water under a pergola [projecting roof or arbor], suggesting the luxurious life of the Delta, and a temple in its enclosure among trees. In front of the temple, under an awning, a group of soldiers assembles, while to one side a procession of priests approaches through a kiosk, carrying a sacred object (Dunbabin 1999: 50).

Detail of the top center of the Barberini mosaic: Pygmies fighting cranes, and two fantastic animals (including the nabous, a word, transcribed by Pliny and translated as the Ethiopian term for giraffe, otherwise known only to this mosaic.)

Detail of the bottom left of the Barberini mosaic, depicting a drinking party next to the waters of the Nile in the Delta, under a pergola, a projecting roof or arbor.

The mosaic depicts a different form of Nilometer than the one I showed you in Wednesday’s lecture: this one, being round, resembles other Nilometers that have been discovered archaeologically.

Detail of the round well probably meant for a Nilometer in the scenes from Lower Egypt in the Barberini mosaic.

Excavated round Nilometer, dating to the New Kingdom.

If you want to read up more on the Barberini/Nile Mosaic, I’d start here:

If you have access to artstor.org (which you should, through the Rockefeller Library), you can find good detail images of the mosaic.

NOTA BENE: If you want to pursue the notion of Egypt as a watery place, I encourage you to check out the recent article “Searching for the Venice of the Nile” from the New Scientist, which describes archaeologist Angus Graham and the Egypt Exploration Society of London’s recent attempts to uncover whether the Karnak temple complex was really on an island in the middle of the Nile, instead of situated on the riverbank as previously assumed. They are asking questions such as “If the waterways existed, did they operate all year round or just during flood season? Were they also used to transport supplies, including the immense stones used to build the temples?” to make sense of the landscape as a whole, including both sides of the Nile and the relationship with the ancient capital at Thebes.